In today's CMU Daily: UMG’s Q2 earnings call was an unusually sombre affair, with good reason. With UMG’s market cap dropping by billions of dollars, the major’s CEO Lucian Grainge saw the prospect of his massive bonus turn from a near cert to a distant dream. And all because a couple of DSPs aren’t pulling their weight

One Liners: Primary Wave x Toto’s Steve Pocaro, Downtown x Lady Blackbird, new Deezer CEO, Italian PRO stats, Philip Glass battles pro-Putin ballet director, Stormzy’s tinted Lambo windows, plus releases + tours news from Aitch, Porter Robinson, Jorja Smith, BABii, Muni Long, Raleigh Ritchie + more

Also today: The record industries of Italy and France have been clocking up web-blocking orders like they are going out of fashion; Martin Shkreli says he should be allowed to keep the copies he made of Wu-Tang Clan’s single-copy album

🔥 Yesterday we released 50 discount codes our new CMU Masterclass mini-bundle: Songs + Recordings: Rights, Revenues + Deals with an incredible 85% discount off the bundle price of £129.  Click here and enter the code Q7GL67J to pay just £19.35 inc VAT.

That promo code has been incredibly popular, so earlier today we released more codes - but they are going fast.

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Whatever role you have in the music industry, these sessions will ensure that you have a full understanding of the music rights and deals landscape in the modern music ecosystem.

⚡️ This batch of codes will probably run out over the weekend, so if you want to take advantage of this special price to get a taster of the CMU Masterclasses, book now.

Lucian Grainge is back on the win-win, but which DSP is off his christmas card list? It’s not hard to guess.

Poor Lucian Grainge. It’s got to be a funny feeling, waking up one morning and knowing that, no matter what you do or say, you’re probably going to end the day wiping out billions of dollars from your company’s value. Even stranger knowing that you’ve probably just kissed goodbye for the foreseeable future - or maybe forever - an enormous bonus that you’d come within a whisker of being able to claim. 

Universal Music’s Q2 earnings call this week was a sombre affair. Coming the day after Spotify’s positive news - firing people has been a huge success! pulling a fast one on songwriters is paying off! - many people expected Universal’s quarterly update to be similarly positive, but - alas - it was not to be so. 

Within minutes of the UMG earnings report being published as the Amsterdam Euronext market - where the company is listed - closed, Warner Music’s share price dropped sharply as it played proxy for frustrated investors unwinding their positions in music companies. By the next day, Universal’s share price fell off a cliff, dropping by as much as 30% and erasing nearly €16 billion in shareholder value. 

The signs were all there. An unusually stiff invitation, edged in black would not have been out of place. Was that a panpipe cover of Chumbawamba’s ‘Tubthumping’ playing quietly through a tinny Bluetooth speaker? Low lighting, a quiet murmur of other guests damped by heavy velvet drapes. “Welcome to UMG’s Q2 results”, whispers a steward as stony-faced analysts file silently in. “Please be kind”. 

It was an unusually awkward start for the normally ebullient Grainge. “Thank you… and hullo to everyone and, uhhh, big greetings live... from us… in Hilverson”.

Gone was the trademark garrulous Grainge charm, gone were the frenetic hoots of “win-win” punctuating every other sentence. As William Bell once sang - in a recording owned, handily enough, by Universal - “Everyone loves a winner, but when you lose you lose alone”. Fortunately for Lucian his trusty compadres Boyd Muir and Michael Nash were standing by, ready to help him couch the numbers.

Domino // Junior Radio Plugger (London)

Sentric Music // Revenue Optimisation Manager (London/Liverpool)

Sentric Music // Copyright Manager (Liverpool/London)

Horizon is CMU's new weekly newsletter - published each Friday - that brings you a hand-picked selection of early-stage career opportunities from across the music industry.

Whether you're looking for your first job in music or you're ready to take a step up, Horizon is here to help you find your dream job faster.

👉 Click through to see the current selection.

ONE LINERS

Deals

• Erik Ron has signed a worldwide publishing deal with Position Music, covering his catalogue of over 500 songs.
• Downtown Neighbouring Rights has signed a global deal with American singer-songwriter Lady Blackbird.
• Primary Wave Music has partnered with Steve Porcaro, co-founder of Toto, in a multi-million-dollar deal covering his music publishing catalogue, artist royalties and neighbouring rights. 

Appointments

• Deezer has appointed Alexis Lanternier as its new CEO, effective 2 Sep.
• Helena Kennedy has been appointed Chair of the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority. 

Labels

• SCF, the performing rights organisation for the Italian record industry, has reported positive results for the first half of 2024, with distributions to rightsholders growing 3%. 

Digital

• Apple is likely to introduce AI generated imagery for Apple Music playlists in iOS 18, powered by its Apple Intelligence on-device artificial intelligence.

Legal

• Philip Glass has accused the Sevastopol Opera And Ballet Theatre in Russian-annexed Crimea of “an act of piracy” by planning to stage a production of the ballet ‘Wuthering Heights’ which will use his music without permission. 
• Ross Davidson, a former lead singer of Spandau Ballet who replaced Tony Hadley in the band, has been convicted of multiple sex offences against three women. 
• Stormzy has pleaded guilty to driving a Lamborghini Urus with illegally tinted windows in Kingston Upon Thames. 
• Meta’s Oversight Board has called for updates to the company’s policies on non-consensual deepfake images, citing a lack of clarity in current wording. 

Live & Events

• DHP Family has acquired Nottingham’s iconic 2500-capacity venue formerly known as Pryzm and plans to reopen it as The Palais in September.
• BBC Introducing has announced its flagship music discovery event, BBC Introducing LIVE 2024, will take place across seven UK cities throughout October.
• London’s Boxpark Shoreditch has announced its impending closure due to planning requirements, despite efforts to collaborate with local authorities and landlords in a bid to allow the pop-up retail and street food complex to continue operating at its current site for longer. 

Other industry news

• Pioneer DJ has released Deckades, a limited-edition fanzine celebrating 30 years of the CDJ. 
• Brighter Sound and the British Council have announced the twelve participants for their Global Music Leaders programme, supporting music industry professionals from eight countries. 
• John Eliot Gardiner has stepped down as leader and artistic director of the Monteverdi Choir And Orchestras following an incident where he allegedly hit a singer.
• Live Nation and the Music Forward Foundation have awarded scholarships worth $10,000 each to five college students pursuing careers in live entertainment and the music industry in the US.
• The K-pop industry’s overseas sales surpassed 1 trillion won ($722.28 million) for the first time in 2023, according to a report by the Korea Culture & Tourism Institute. 

Artist News

• Kool DJ Red Alert - credited with inventing the mixtape while working with Afrika Bambaataa - has been honoured with a statue in New York City’s Montefiore Park. 
• King Crimson guitarist Jakko Jakszyk has announced his autobiography, ‘Who’s The Boy With The Lovely Hair? The Unlikely Memoir Of Jakko M Jakszyk’, to be released on 10 Oct through Kingmaker Publishing. 
• Blur bassist Alex James has announced a new book, ’Over The Rainbow: Tales From An Unexpected Year’, set for release on 5 Dec via Penguin Random House.

Releases & Tours

• Aitch has collaborated with D-Block Europe on new single ‘Gold Mine’.
• Porter Robinson has released his new album ‘SMILE! :D’.
• Jorja Smith has released her new single ‘High’.
• BABii has released her new single ‘Scarface’. Her new album ‘DareDeviil2000’ is out 11 Oct.
• Muni Long has released her new single ‘Ruined Me’. Her new album ‘Revenge’ is out 30 Aug.
• Raleigh Ritchie has released his new album ‘DEAD ENDS AND DIVERSIONS’.
• Poppy Ajudha has released her new single ‘Girl Next Door’.
• Written By Wolves have released their new album ‘THE LIGHTHOUSE’ alongside the video for the title track here.
• Central Cee has released his new single ‘gen z luv’.
• Twin Atlantic have released their new album’s title-track single  ‘Meltdown’. The new album is out 9 Aug.
• COBRAH has released her remix EP ’SUCCUBUS XXXTENDED’. Featuring remixes from Amanda Lepore, Only Fire, MCR-T and more.
• Sam Tompkins has released his debut album ‘hi, my name is insecure’.
• Razorlight have released their new single ‘Scared Of Nothing’, alongside the announcement of a UK headline tour; including a show at O2 Academy Brixton on 21 Nov. Tickets are available here.
• Blur have released their new live album ‘Blur: Live At Wembley Stadium’. The feature-length film of the Wembley concert will be showing in cinemas across the UK and Ireland from 6 Sep. The trailer is live to watch here.
• Cults have released their new album ‘To The Ghosts’.
• grentperez and Lyn Lapid have collaborated on new single ‘Room For You’.
• Bastille have released their new EP ‘“&” (Ampersand) Part One’.
• Jake Isaac has released his new single ‘EVER YOURS’. His new album ‘BENJAMIN’ is out 25 Oct.
• Boys Noize has released his new single ‘FVKVRVND’.

French and Italian record industries secure new web-blocks

The music industry has been busy getting some new web-blocks in place this week, with the French record industry securing an injunction from the courts in Paris ordering internet service providers and search engines to block 40 domains. Meanwhile the Italian industry has welcomed the blocking of a number of stream-ripping sites within the country. 

In Italy web-blocking orders can be secured against copyright infringing websites via communications regulator AGCOM. This time it was anti-piracy group FPM that requested the web-blocks, with its General Secretary Luca Vespignani commending the regulator for performing its role in the fight against online infringement “quickly and effectively”.

FPM says that it focused on stream-ripping sites - which allow people to download permanent copies of temporary streams - because the use of such services is the “most widespread form” of online music piracy, accounting for 30% of infringing activity online. And while stream-ripping sites have been a key piracy gripe of the music industry for some time now, FPM says the use of these services is growing, up 10% in the first quarter of this year. 

Martin Shkreli says his copies of single-copy Wu-Tang album are legit and he shouldn’t have to give them up

Convicted fraudster Martin Shkreli has told a court in New York that the single-copy Wu-Tang Clan album he bought in 2015 was, in fact, a several-copy album by the time the original compact disc copy of the record was seized by US authorities in 2018. 

The making of additional copies of ‘Once Upon A Time In Shaolin’ between 2015 and 2018 was entirely legal, he adds, and therefore the current owner of the original CD has no grounds for making a legal complaint in 2024 over the fact the extra copies are still in his possession. 

When the US Marshals Service sold the original CD in 2021, Shkreli claims in a new legal filing, the law enforcement agency “made no representation that the assets transferred comprised the only existing copy of the work”.